24 Dec 2011

Don't Mess With The Keynesians, Bringing in the Gunslinger: Nicholas Wapshott on Keynes vs. Hayek

Keynes and Hayek were defining figures in 20th century economics. In this INET interview, Nicholas Wapshott talks about his book, Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics, and about the intellectual clashes between two foundational economic thinkers. He details how the "gunslinger," Hayek, was brought in to London to bring down the "panther," Keynes. Things were about to get ungentlemanly. Source
the different characters of Keynes and Hayek, which Wapshott says had a profound influence on their preferred policy programs. While Keynes was an optimist, Hayek was a pessimist who "assumed that if things could go wrong, they would go wrong."
Let us be humble, and appreciate the limits of our knowledge -- such was Hayek's credo, as Nicholas Wapshott explains
Nicholas Wapshott suggests that modern economists would do well to remember the work of Keynes now, as they have strayed too far from the lessons of Keynes in pursuit of ever more refined modeling technique. In the same vein, modern policy makers would do well to remember paying off debt during a boom, as Keynes had suggested.
How the conflict between Keynes and Hayek has carried forward into modern debates over the proper role of governance. As policy debates still wage on today over austerity vs. stimulus, the ideological clash of these two great economists seems more relevant than ever.

THE CHRIST DELUSION - FKN Newz


Featuring "I'm dreamin of a shite Christmas!" and FKN Santa.

Iraq Miscalculation: America's greatest mistake?

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq has left a wave of sectarian violence in its wake. America says it left stability behind. But even the largest oil reserves in the world aren't enough to pay for the peace Iraqis want. RT's Sean Thomas investigates what that means for the reputation of the U.S. in the region ... and beyond. Source

Egyptian women's biggest protest in 100 years: "we have no fear"

10,000 Egytian women protest against the brutal attacks by Egypt's security forces on protesters generally and on the woman known as "the blue bra" girl. The epic march, mobilised through Facebook and Twitter on 20 December 2011, brought together women of all ages, and across the social and class divide. They were united in the refusal to be intimidated and called for the military government to step down. Report by Real News Source

The Endgame - 2012 Forecast

We are going to move from denial to realization.. Physical world events will drive the process of realization. The primary trend is between stability and instability. We are moving from a multi-class system running from Super Elite to Unperson into a model of have's and have-nots, the unpersons. Labor has become a problem because less than 500 million are involved in life support activities thereby leaving more than 7 billion people very vulnerable to dependency (and treated as expendable containers). We are watching a redistribution process bound towards divestiture as more people become unpersons. Destruction of paper assets, debt collapse, bank failure, and war are all part of the redistribution process. With more unpeople, it becomes easier to reduce population through death and abuse. Our current economic structure has at least six trajectories of support; the physical world, human capital, transportation, technology, rule of law,and money. Source

Alyona v. Peter Schiff: 1% Fights Back!

It looks like the one percent are fighting back against Occupy Wall Street. A Blomberg report out this week highlights what looks like a concert effort by hedge funders, banking executives and the like, to craft their own message. Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital discusses. Source

OCCUPY THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM - BREAKING NEWS RE THE 99% ACTIVATING THE NEW


The first historic trades within the new financial system have taken place!
The many global, independent trading networks all over the planet are rapidly connecting with each other, forming an infinitely expanding web of local and international commerce, exchange and trade.
People have woken up to the fact: for most of what we spend WE DO NOT NEED GOVERNMENT ISSUED MONEY.  In fact, so many different groups have been abusing the money system, it can no longer fulfil its original purposes, which were:
a)    as a medium of exchange
b)    as a unit of account, and
c)     as a store of value
It is the last of these that has led to systemic abuse and criminality, along with usury – the charging of interest.  Money stopped merely facilitating things (a job it can do supremely well) and started to be seen as value in itself – which is one reason why so much is out of circulation! The ‘value’ is being hoarded, availability manipulated, markets distorted.  No wonder the older religions all forbade usury – for they knew that the usurer and his schemes means that he always ends up owning everything, and tends to manipulate ruthlessly to that end.
There have been some interesting clues as to how this controlling and enslaving global finance system might be broken up.  In the 1980’s, in Canada, a man called Michael Linton named the first Local Exchange Trading systems (LETS), from which a number were established.  They then spread around the planet, but were largely ignored by anyone even remotely mainstream.  The system, in brief, means that you have a local, non-interest bearing currency, and members of the system trade together for all sorts of goods and services: up to 70% of everything you need can be acquired this way in a properly run system with enough members. See definition at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system
Then there were time banks, e-currencies…and many other innovations.  Over thirty years the expertise has spread to everywhere. For Time Bank description, see:
One of the most sophisticated, just coming into full operation, is Liverpool, England-based TGL: see:  http://www.tgl.tv/
The first big clue to how these generic system types might be deployed was when Argentina got into trouble with the banksters, and threw out the IMF.  The nation was in deep financial crisis – but very quickly, LETS systems sprang up, so that the people that participated were not disadvantaged.  The same has happened recently in Greece.  One Greek man, interviewed for a You Tube piece, said of the emergence of LETS – “I am amazed: I can afford things I could never have bought before”.
In other words, this generic type of system leads to increased abundance – not what you might expect in the midst of what the media tends to paint as ‘siege economies’.  Meaning that people are real and can get on with it – while many aspects ofgovernment today are a variety of fictions, and fall apart under stresses that are also substantially of fictional making.
The upshot?  SYSTEMS LIKE LETS, AND MANY INNOVATIVE VARIANTS, ARE IN PROCESS TO TAKE OVER.  Just as things like computers have moved from huge, centralised systems to distributed PC’s on everyone’s desktop, the financial system is becoming distributed down to the level of community.  Indeed, these systems ARE the community level of the NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM. The new System is literally everywhere already, spreading a like new knowledge to the 100 monkeys!
There is a lot of software for these systems, much of it available for free.  For a good list of examples, see:  http://www.letslinkuk.net/software/
The new system' developers know that people are 'the gold' that backs and assures this system's success
As the groups link with each other the Products, services and reach of this network grows daily.

Many of the groups and systems are not listed here yet, for obvious reasons, however they soon will be. In the meantime, we suggest you look at the links above, then do a computer search for local exchange networks in your area and get involved.
In the (probably) trying times ahead, joining a LETS-type system IS ONE OF THE MOST POSITIVE FINANCIAL SURVIVAL STEPS YOU CAN TAKE
Software, electronic payment, credit, debit facilities and new currencies are all part of the range of technologies already operational in these new systems. All this and more is available for new groups to implement in all regions, countries, communities!
Details re access to all info will be made available in the next weeks.

Some of the exciting applications of the new financial systems include self funding of various communities and other initiatives, starting small and growing to include the, food, health, water treatment, education, new green power and other technologies, all waiting in readiness, for this ability to fund them, to arrive!

As stated, all are welcome, including those of the old regime, subject only to the simple credo of Inclusion, and operating for The Greatest Good of All.
Those of the old regime are invited to make contact, if they sincerely wish to cooperate.  Their resources, systems and networks will still be of value if they are contributed in alignment with the above philosophy. Alternatively, they may want to research the truth of what is reported here, ie, that this process of the establishment of and implementation of the new, 'people's financial system, IS happening, IS expanding, rapidly, and IS beyond anyone's control, due to the fact that it is backed by some 200 million enlightened people!
If you have read and resonated with this article, please forward it to your personal contact list, post it on web sites you have access to, use it as a basis for publication, print it up and hand it out – or anything else you can do to spread the word.  You will be helping humanity move forward! Source

America runs the "Special Olympics for Financial Fraud" Capital Account - Max Keiser

US congress today approved an extension of the payroll tax cut for two months...putting off a tax increase for millions of workers. So, after much partisan politicking, they did it -- saving face for the moment, but could it hurt their stock price headed into the 2012 elections? You heard me right. We'll talk about the political derivatives market a Chicago exchange is betting on. Would it be a continuation of a climate on wall street that encourages special treatment that our guest, fiancial journalist and inventor of the virtual specialist technology, Max Keiser, calls "the special olympics for financial fraud." And speaking of derivatives, those bets added fuel to the fire that engulfed the financial markets in 2008...most famously seen in the explosion and bailout of AGI (backdoor bailout of the big banks like goldman sachs, jp morgan, bank of america, etc.). More recently, MF Global customer money used to trade on these exchanges went missing. So where do futures exchanges come from and where have they gone wrong? From Ancient Greece to MF Global we'll break it down. And, heading into 2012 -- will it be a happy new year for the US economy? Maybe not. Economists predict sluggish 2 percent growth, an economy held down by housing troubles, government budget cuts, and a lousy job market. That didn't stop hoards of people from lining up at malls and waiting all night for a chance to buy the 175 dollar "IT" Air Jordans. We'll show you what happened. Source